Hi DavidR,
I have followed your instructions and did a clean reinstall… Last time I have updated over beta version. But this time I didn’t installed Mail shield, P2P shield with AIS. However I have uninstalled Intel Application Accelarator too. Now avast! working more smoother and I feel some improvement in performance too (when launching applications and browsing).
But let me have some time to evaluate the performance for next few days and see if it persists.
Really Appreciate Your Clean and Clear Instructions and Flexibility…
However (if you prefer) I would like if you can respond to my prior question about avast FREE… 
Cheers…